West Wemyss Sea Mine explosion, January 23rd, 1941

[Jake Drummond]

Just before 11 am on a cold Thursday morning during the second winter of World War 2 an explosion rocked the Fife coastal village of West Wemyss, ending the lives of five men from the village; the youngest of them just 15 years old, the eldest a retired 69 year old miner.
All five had bravely tethered a sea mine which had broken free from its moorings and was in danger of drifting towards the town, where most of the 700 or so inhabitants were unaware of the danger.
Piecing together reports from the now elderly locals and the few facts in public records, a story emerges of bravery which has gone unnoticed for nigh on seventy years, a story which I hope will be told in the unveiling of a memorial at the east end of the village on the 23rd of January 2011.

George Storrar, a 38 year old miner who had enlisted as a Special Constable with Fife Police, was alerted to the fact that an object had been seen floating near the Lady’s Rock, a prominent landmark a few hundred yards to the east of the village.
Enlisting the help of Colin Smart, a 36 year old home Guard Volunteer, they headed off to have a look and found that the object was indeed a sea mine, floating free and a hazard to both friend and foe alike.
The immediate danger lay in that it was drifting along the shore line and could easily come ashore close to the houses, so with ropes hastily collected from a nearby house by young Peter Graham, the pair began to attempt to throw a loop of rope over one of the protruding ‘horns’, and to tether it until an Ordnance team could be alerted to dispose of the danger. Had the mine drifted out to sea again the village would be safe but the shipping which used the local harbours at Methil and Kirkcaldy would be at risk, and from the very ordnance designed to protect them from enemy attack.
58 year old James Anderson and retired miner David Laing were walking nearby and joined the others in their attempts to secure the semi submerged mine, and whatever happened thereafter will remain unknown as one of the spikes must have come in contact with the rocks and detonated the high explosive contained within the steel shell, sending out fragments of the outer casing which caught the five men in its blast.
The mine was still ‘live’, despite the Geneva Convention ruling that all mines which broke free of their moorings should be so designed that they then become inert, but whether this one had dragged a length of its mooring cable with it or had been faulty may never be known.

George Storrar, David Laing and Peter Graham died instantly. Peter was only 15 years old and lived only a few hundred yards away in Seaview Cottage.
The blast shook the village, breaking windows in the town and flattening parts of the greenhouses and causing damage at Wemyss Castle, some 100 feet above the shoreline and 750 yards away. Windows in some of the Estate cottages were peppered by the debris and sand flung from the scene.
Windows rattled in the nearby Dorothy school located at the top of the village, where Peter Graham’s 10 year old brother sat next to his friend Andrew Nicol; “The bang was tremendous, and we knew something serious had happened and within a few minutes someone came and called Peter’s brother away. We were only told that school would end early, and that we were to go straight home. We quickly learned what had happened though” remembers Andrew, who still lives in the village.

The sound of the explosion could be heard and its effects felt in nearby East Wemyss where Dr Khambatta’s surgery and home were. He was soon on the scene and found that although three were dead, two had survived the blast but with terrible injuries.
Mr Tod, architect and factor at Wemyss Castle and in charge of the local Home Guard troop, rushed to the scene. Being a Great War veteran he knew the sound of high explosives and knew what to expect but he was stunned by what he saw. His daughter Nancy described seeing him return home later that day and "pouring a stiff whisky and downing it, something we never saw him do. He was still shaking, and had obviously been shocked at the sight of the tragedy”

Alison Bell (nee Coventry) was in school at East Wemyss, the next village, and remembers,
“I was in East Wemyss school at the time, I was 12 years old and remember being in the sewing class, and we heard the mine explode from there. It was awful to think of the dead men, and young Peter Graham of course, and to think that Colin Smart left behind all those children……..but I suppose he had to put the thought of them aside when he considered what could have happened. Peter Graham had run home to fetch the rope they caught the mine with, and they had pulled it in to stop it drifting along the shore, and of course the ships were moored in the Forth too and it could have blown them out of the water if it had gone out again.
Had the mine gone off nearer the village it would have been terrible, as the gas storage tanks were right at the sea front; two huge things right in front of our house. The mine would have set them off and would surely have flattened the town. None of the men were anything but sensible, so I suppose they must have realised the risks they were taking. Doctor Khambatta had one of the few cars to come into the village at the time, and he was there very quickly, but there was not much he would be able to do. Aye, they were brave men.”

Colin Smart and James Anderson were rushed to the Randolph Wemyss Memorial Hospital in Buckhaven, but Anderson’s injuries were too severe and Dr Wilson declared his death at 2.15 that afternoon.
Against the odds Colin Smart held on to life until the third of February, finally succumbing to terrible wounds in the early afternoon eleven days after the explosion.
All five were West Wemyss residents, all were miners and all left family in the village to grieve; wives and sons and daughters, brothers and sisters and in Peter Graham’s case, a mother and father who would live each day so near to where their son died.

Jim Pollock was a 15 year old living in the village, not far from Peter’s parents’ house; “I went to the funerals of all the victims, and Peter’s was especially difficult for me as we were so friendly. He was a braw laddie, and we were so proud to have been allowed to join the Home Guard unit and do what we could. Peter wanted to be a soldier, but........”
Jim has never forgotten his West Wemyss upbringing, and though now 85 years old and living in Kennoway he visits family in the village once or twice a week and aye has his stroll along the shore, no doubt at times remembering happy times spent with his friend.
The village and its inhabitants came to accept that this tragedy was ‘just what happened during wartime’ and over the years the story and the efforts of the five victims have been forgotten, save for a few of the older inhabitants, but this should not be so.

The Memorial Plan …………..a remembrance.

A memorial sculpture has been commissioned, created by well known Kirremuir artist and sculptor Bruce Walker.
Denfind stone will be used to make an image of a mine with a stainless steel spike to represent each of the five victims, their names inscribed around polished steel. These will be set in a polished basalt hemisphere to represent the body of mine, and the whole set into the base, a huge block of whin, carved to represent the waves of the sea. A suitable epitaph will be inscribed across the waves, encouraging viewers to walk around the sculpture.

Sited within the village, it will be set in a position to be seen by the many walkers using the Coastal Path, and the proposed design is a striking one and will be built by a known and respected artist and will not go unnoticed, and surely should encourage visitors to the area to see the Memorial. It should be a thing of beauty and in keeping with the village and its folk, but most of all it should keep alive the memory of five ordinary men who showed extraordinary courage in a time of war on the home front and whose tragic sacrifice was forgotten because of the same crisis.

The unveiling ceremony will be held on January 23rd 2011 at 11am, seventy years to the hour since the explosion occurred, at West Wemyss. It is hoped that we will see a good turnout, and refreshments will be served after the unveiling in St Adrian’s Church Hall, to which all are invited.
A church service will begin at 9.45 am, and again we would like to extend a welcome to all to hear Rev. Wilma Cairns say a few words.

Should anyone reading this be related to any of the five men I'd like to get in touch. We have photographs of all except James Anderson, and I'd dearly like to get a copy of anything with James on it.

[paddyscar]

Hope your plans have progressed and that you've managed to make the connections you sought.

Frances

[JeffC]

Morning. I saw this site by chance.

Re the post "Sea Mine Explosion". My mother, Nancy Gray (a school friend of Alison Bell) also used to talk of the explosion and the shock of people she knew dying. She also remembered the Store window being blown in and as a child thinking what a waste when the staff had to throw out all the cakes.

[StewL]

Hello Jeff

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